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The Kessel Run [Cannonball Run Spoof Movie Poster]

The Kessel Run was an 18-parsec route used by smugglers to move glitterstim spice from Kessel to an area south of the Si’Klaata Cluster without getting caught by the Imperial ships that were guarding the movement of spice from Kessel’s mines. [Source]

And, to be more specific, and to add to Err's post, the reason Han makes such a big deal about making the Run in "less than 12" is because of the dangerous nature of the route.

According to Wookipedia, "The Kessel Run was one of the most heavily used smuggling routes in the Galactic Empire. Han Solo claimed that his Millennium Falcon "made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs". A parsec was a unit of distance, not time. Solo was not referring directly to his ship's speed when he made this claim. Instead, he was referring to the shorter route he was able to travel by skirting the nearby Maw black hole cluster, thus making the run in under the standard distance. By moving closer to the black holes, Solo managed to cut the distance down to about 11.5 parsecs. The smuggler, BoShek, actually beat Solo's record in his ship, Infinity, but without cargo to weigh him down. A few months later, Han Solo beat both his own and BoShek's records in a run he made with Luke Skywalker."

In other words, when Han made his claim, he wasn't boasting about his ships speed, but rather its heightened maneuverability.

Check out the book Shadow Games, first chapter. It talks about it there and why Han's run is important. But in short, a parsec is a measurement of distance ~3.25 lightyears. What he was boasting about was how close he was to the Maw cutting the distance in which he had to go. Now of course if going from point A to point B is less distance it will take less time based on the same speed. And of course we all know that the Falcon is one of the faster freighters. So yeah Han was also boasting about his speed aswell, just to a lesser exstent. Read Shadow Games it's a good book if you want to know a bit more about the EU. (Exstended Universe)